Let’s examine and get familiar with the new 2020 Brikka’s parts.

See the drawing.

Unboxed image of main parts.

The valve system:

The valve system is screwed to the top of the column/coffee pipe and has an “O” ring that seals it to the column.
Its shape somehow reminds a traditional moka pot column’s tip, but it is differ as it has a special internal structure with a silicone regulator.

Though Bialetti writes in the manual: “Never unscrew the valve system (2) from the column.“, I doubt it, as the very small slot of the silicone regulator might get clogged with time. Coffee grinds/oil residue and/or scale might build on it and will change the product’s normal operation.
In addition, the “O” ring will get dry and break with time under the existing heat and pressure.

Taking the Brikka 2020 apart:

Taking the Brikka 2020 apart for periodic cleaning and/or maintenance is easy and similar to older versions.
Take apart the filter gasket and metal filter (pay attention to the filter’s side that faces out), inspect the gasket for cracks and replace it if needed.
With proper care it will last several years, depending on usage.
Clean the filter with coffee oil remover soap and soak it in citric-acid solution for 1-2 hours to remove any scale buildup.

In case you need to disassemble the valve system, take it apart by unscrewing it Counter Clockwise (CCW).
Use a 10 mm. open wrench to unscrew it, as it is assembled tightly.
Remove the silicone cap. Pull it out and clean it. Inspect the “O” ring for any cracks and if needed, replace it with compatible new “O”ring.
Dimensions of the “O” ring are: ID=8.0 mm. OD=11.0 mm.

This disassembly will be needed only if you believe the valve is clogged or not functioning as normal.

Cons:

– Painted heater container. It looks nice when new, but after some use the paint will be scratched and worn out.

– The thread of the heater container is partially painted while it should not be!
This causes the two main parts to get stuck. The painted thread does not allow proper tightening of the parts and steam will leak. It took excessive force to release the parts. Only after few step-by-step tightening and un-tightening, the paint over the thread got peeled off and after cleaning the residue from the threads of both parts, I managed to properly tighten the heater container to the upper container to allow smooth operation.

– The new valve’s body is probably made by a milling machine and it has some unpolished faces with sharp edges that might hurt your fingers while cleaning.
Be careful!

– Very thin aluminum funnel /coffee basket without a gasket. This requires the funnel to fit precisely in its designated recess of the heater container and any distortion of its shape will affect the sealing.  Since it is so thin and sensitive to distortion, you can’t knock it to remove the coffee puck and extra care should be given to this part.

– The plastic water container has NO 2 cup/4 cup marking on it, nor fl. Oz. scale or any marking of the plastic material it is made of. (perhaps it is an EU version, but I doubt it)

– The Instructions for use/manual is unclear and not user friendly.
For the water amount it has the following drawing which the (*) says:
“ Indicative value: it can vary based on the amount of water or coffee, the type of coffee blend, and its grinding (see table).”

Go figure out from the drawing how much coffee you’ll get?
The drawing (as I understand it) suggests it uses 120 ml. of water for the 2 cup model to produce 100 ml. of Moka which somehow turns into 15ml. in the cup.
15 ml.? How come a 2 cup Brikka produces only 15 ml. (half a shot)?
How come a 4 cup Brikka produces only 30 ml. (one shot)?
Somehow the numbers do not add…

Another guess is that the 15 ml. and 30 ml. represent the crema. Nothing is mentioned about it in the manual though.
A 1:1 coffee to crema ratio? This sounds odd, unless the coffee consists high percentage of robusta and perhape some baking soda. I doubt those numbrs represent the crema of a standard 30 ml. of coffee nor my tests showed that.
Perhaps those figures represent the crema of the whole coffee output?
15 ml. for 2 cups and 30 ml. for 4 cups, which means 7.5 ml. of crema for each cup?
Maybe, but if it is, the graphics and its explanations are poorly presented and are not clear.

This manual is a very poor example of user experience.

 Tip: My suggestion for the water amount is to forget the plastic water measuring cup, forget the instructions and stick to the basics: fill water to just below the safety valve. This will be ~120-130 ml. (~4.0-4.4 fl. Oz.) for the 2 cup model.

– Bialetti marketing strategy and the graphics of the box are misleading.
Box indicates in English: “THE ESPRESSO COFFEE” and in Italian: “L’ESPRESSO COME AL BAR” (translation: “ESPRESSO AS AT THE BAR”) in a very noticeable place while it is surely NOT a product that produces Espresso!
It does not create 9 bar of pressure which is needed to produce Espresso, not to mention other parameters that are part of the Espresso formula.
This is only a Moka pot!

In another place of the box it is written in a very small letters “The moka aroma, the espresso cream”
Moka is not Espresso and the crema this new pot produces is not significantly different from old Brikka, it dissipates after a short time, depends of course on the coffee that is being used.
This graphics is BTW the same as was used in latest Brikka with weight system that has a black heater container.

It is surprising and disappointing that Bialetti uses these misleading phrases for its new Brikka Caffettiera, and not only.
I would expect more decency and a lot more respect towards Espresso from an Italian company.

In latest models of Brikka with the weight system, a ‘fancy’ ribbon was attached to it saying “ESPRESSO coffee” and on the box of it there is a ribbon graphics that says: “to make ESPRESSO“, both are of course NOT true!
Luckily the Brikka 2020 does not have this ribbon which probably saved the company some cents…

This ribbon proves that Bialetti’s approach of presenting the Moka as Espresso is not new and goes beyond this model to several generations of this stove-top Moka pot.